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Wagner FMIC initial observations

Itís never really winter here in Hawaii so I took advantage of a nice Black Friday sale and DHL Express dropped this off straight from Germany last week.

After installing it I decided to log a few pulls to see how it performs. It is well known that aftermarket intercoolers decrease IATís and cooler air is more dense which makes more HP. This monster of an IC does that quite well. Some other benefits of the FMIC upgrade are:

-Pressure drop. Wagner claims 2 psi pressure drop, this means your turbocharger is having to compress 2 PSI less air to generate the same boost at the intake. Compressing air generates heat. Cooler air going into the intercooler means even cooler air coming out.

-Better efficiency. MAF readings from my data logs show more air flowing throughout the powerband. Boost is around 1 PSI lower but MAF readings are up 5 g/s at lower RPM and up to 10 g/s at readline. More air means more power. Also less stress on the turbocharger.

-Hot air promotes detonation. Knock sensors will cut back timing advance when your motor is breathing hot air. Comparing data logged with my stock IC and the Wagner FMIC, I am showing 1 to 2į more timing advance throughout the powerband with the upgraded IC. More timing advance means more power.

The one downside I saw from the data logs is slower turbo spool (turbo lag). It was roughly 200 RPM slower to spool up compared to the stock IC. My turbo muffler delete arrived 2 days after the FMIC and after deleting that soundbox, I regained some of what I lost. Turbo spool up is now about 100 RPM slower than stock but I can live with that. Especially when you compare all the benefits.

-Pressure drop. Wagner claims 2 psi pressure drop, this means your turbocharger is having to compress 2 PSI less air to generate the same boost at the intake. Compressing air generates heat. Cooler air going into the intercooler means even cooler air coming out.

The one downside I saw from the data logs is slower turbo spool (turbo lag). It was roughly 200 RPM slower to spool up compared to the stock IC. My turbo muffler delete arrived 2 days after the FMIC and after deleting that soundbox, I regained some of what I lost. Turbo spool up is now about 100 RPM slower than stock but I can live with that. Especially when you compare all the benefits.

I have a quick question about pressure drop. Not trying to be negative but I'm wondering about what you were saying. If I am understanding correctly 2 psi of pressure drop for an intercooler would mean that you are losing 2psi measured at the inlet vs outlet.

This would mean you are actually having to compress 2psi MORE of air in order to make the same boost as without the restriction of the intercooler. Meaning this makes the turbo work harder.

Did you perhaps mean something else or perhaps they tested it against the stock intercooler for pressure drop?

BTW, what are your impressions of IAT on each runs. I'd be very interested in that.

He's talking about pressure at the MAF. To make 23psi there, the turbo may have to generate 27 psi to account for pressure drop across the intercooler. With less pressure drop, the turbo may only have to make 25psi, so lower temps and less wear.

What pressure drop means is, if youíre running 24 PSI as indicated by your boost gauge that means the turbo is actually producing something closer to 27 PSI. This pressure loss is a natural byproduct of flowing air, and the loss will grow as boost pressure increases on any given intercooler.

A good aftermarket IC has much better air flow and this results in a reduction of kinetic energy. If an intercooler had zero kinetic energy loss, then the pressure on the inlet, and the outlet of the core would read exactly the same value. Reducing the pressure drop across the core is important because the lower the pressure drop, the less the turbo has to work to hit its intended boost target as measured after the intercooler.

Increasing the size of an intercooler will also reduce the resulting pressure drop. The velocity of the air passing through the inside of the core is a function of the volume of air flowing over the cross-sectional area, and fluid friction is a function of velocity. So the higher velocity of air flowing through the intercooler, the higher friction loss.

A good analogy would be comparing friction loss in a firehose. The larger diameter the firehose the less friction loss or pressure drop. The same applies with a bigger intercooler. Does it make sense?

2psi pressure drop as it pertains to an intercooler is 2psi measured drop or loss in pressure from the obstruction in airflow of that intercooler. The lower the better assuming you can still cool the charge effectively. This pressure drop is what the turbo has to overcome in order to see the same amount of boost or pressure at the intake manifold as without the obstruction.

I was asking because you stated "Wagner claims 2 psi pressure drop, this means your turbocharger is having to compress 2 PSI less air to generate the same boost at the intake. "

I'm just trying to get clarity on that.

Because if you are losing 2psi pressure due to the intercooler than actually the turbo would have to compress 2psi MORE air to get that same reading at the manifold.

Look at it this way. Your calibration is going to specify at a certain rpm a certain manifold boost pressure.... lets just randomly say 20psi at 5000rpm. Now your turbo without the pressure loss would hypothetically run a 70% wastegate duty cycle to make that 20psi at the manifold. Now if you had an obtruction causing 2psi of pressure loss, your turbo is still going to target that same 20psi but now it is having to use lets say a 75% duty cycle to make that same psi. The turbo has to work harder to compress more air to make up for that pressure loss pre-intake manifold.

I'm asking because it appears to be a tube and fine design as well so maybe it is giving a bit more pressure drop than some of the other bar and plates out there who knows. Just be interesting to see that the pressure drop really is.

Mike, the reason why I mentioned Wagnerís claim of pressure drop because only Integrated Engineering and Wagner are the only companies that I know of that have published data to back their claim of pressure drop.

I was just trying to clarify the statement thats all. Just making sure it was actual pressure drop of their unit. I'm looking at putting a setup together for my avant and was just comparing.

Just to clarify the ECS claims are that they have reduced pressure drop by 52% (compared to the stock setup) not that their intercooler has 52% pressure drop - I know most people would realize that just clarifying.

It looks like the ECS unit measured a max pressure drop of .65psi actually measured on our cars. Awesome...

Some treadstone cores are rated up to max of 2psi or 1psi of pressure drop depending on the core you choose but unknown the conditions of testing and probably not on our cars so who really knows? Id be interested to know.

Anyone can make a claim backing it up and published data is another story

exactly, thats why id take that 2psi pressure drop claim with a grain of salt

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Originally Posted by bhvrdr

I was just trying to clarify the statement thats all. Just making sure it was actual pressure drop of their unit. I'm looking at putting a setup together for my avant and was just comparing.

Just to clarify the ECS claims are that they have reduced pressure drop by 52% (compared to the stock setup) not that their intercooler has 52% pressure drop - I know most people would realize that just clarifying.

It looks like the ECS unit measured a max pressure drop of .65psi actually measured on our cars. Awesome...

Some treadstone cores are rated up to max of 2psi or 1psi of pressure drop depending on the core you choose but unknown the conditions of testing and probably not on our cars so who really knows? Id be interested to know.

The IE appears to max out at .8psi pressure loss on our cars.

Mike

Yep your right, was just quoting right from the product page. I bought the ECS one because I was pleasantly surprised by all the testing they did on it and the results for the price. They are on sale right now for 212 bucks for the core kit without the charge piping.

exactly, thats why id take that 2psi pressure drop claim with a grain of salt

- - - Updated - - -

Yep your right, was just quoting right from the product page. I bought the ECS one because I was pleasantly surprised by all the testing they did on it and the results for the price. They are on sale right now for 212 bucks for the core kit without the charge piping.

I agree that 2psi seems unlikely. Looking at the link that Perry just posted it seems they are also claiming and showing less pressure drop than OEM and OEM is around 1psi so i have no idea where 2psi comes from. The testing from ECS and IE shows much less pressure drop than OEM as well.

The increase in lag Perry is seeing though is a bit concerning and I wonder if that large core or core design is a bit much for the stock or k04 turbo. That huge surface area is pretty cool though.

I appreciate the ECS link. I'm strongly considering just buying their core and running it with my stock plumbing. Their testing looks solid as well.

I agree that 2psi seems unlikely. Looking at the link that Perry just posted it seems they are also claiming and showing less pressure drop than OEM and OEM is around 1psi so i have no idea where 2psi comes from. The testing from ECS and IE shows much less pressure drop than OEM as well.

Mike

After looking at the Wagner pressure drop chart again, Iím not sure how to interpret the data. I thought it showed the Wagner had a 2 PSI drop but it apperars to show the stock IC at 300 CFM has 2 PSI drop and the Wagner at 300 CFM at 1 PSI of drop. Itís a bit conflicting compared to the IE and ECS data though.

I guess the bottom line is that an aftermarket FMIC will have less pressure drop than a stock IC which we all know is better.

I agree that 2psi seems unlikely. Looking at the link that Perry just posted it seems they are also claiming and showing less pressure drop than OEM and OEM is around 1psi so i have no idea where 2psi comes from. The testing from ECS and IE shows much less pressure drop than OEM as well.

The increase in lag Perry is seeing though is a bit concerning and I wonder if that large core or core design is a bit much for the stock or k04 turbo. That huge surface area is pretty cool though.

I appreciate the ECS link. I'm strongly considering just buying their core and running it with my stock plumbing. Their testing looks solid as well.

Mike

The increase in lag is identical to what I saw with the ECS IC and its going to be typical of any of the larger volume intercoolers. You have more of a space to fill with air so its going to take a tad longer to fill that volume. The wagner, IE, and APR's are larger in physical size but they arent particularly that much larger in volume overall, thinner larger cores where as the ECS is a shorter thicker core. I'd have to look at each one but you could probably chart out the volumes of each intercooler compared to the stock one to get an idea which is going to increase turbo lag the most based on sheer volume.

Thanks so much man! As long as I can keep IATs below 60c on a repeated basis im ok with that. I really like the large frontal area of the APR, IE, Wagner since thats how you're getting your cooling affect but if the ECS tuning works well enough to keep those temps down I cant see a reason to go bigger. hmmm. have to look at the IAT comparos more.

Thanks so much man! As long as I can keep IATs below 60c on a repeated basis im ok with that. I really like the large frontal area of the APR, IE, Wagner since thats how you're getting your cooling affect but if the ECS tuning works well enough to keep those temps down I cant see a reason to go bigger. hmmm. have to look at the IAT comparos more.

Mike

It's all about balance, remember, small turbos on our cars. So larger you make anything along the air intake tract, the longer its gonna take for that tiny turbo to fill that space, or in other words, longer it will take for it to get that space between the turbo and motor to the requested pressure. No doubt a larger IC will see better and more consistent IAT's, but at what point are you trading off certain aspects for that cooling, thats what I cannot answer for you. 18 liters is frigin massive for a K03 even a K04.

It's all about balance, remember, small turbos on our cars. So larger you make anything along the air intake tract, the longer its gonna take for that tiny turbo to fill that space, or in other words, longer it will take for it to get that space between the turbo and motor to the requested pressure. No doubt a larger IC will see better and more consistent IAT's, but at what point are you trading off certain aspects for that cooling, thats what I cannot answer for you. 18 liters is frigin massive for a K03 even a K04.

The Wagner FMIC is big but cold dense air is what makes power. Iíve been driving turbocharged cars a long time and know how to keep the boost up. Turbo lag isnít really a big issue for me.